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CU-Boulder plans to name dorms 'Nowoo3 Hall' and 'Houusoo Hall'

Faculty members say using English spellings for chiefs Niwot, Little Raven is 'culturally chauvinist'

By Sarah Kuta Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
11/28/2013 01:00:15 PM MST

Updated:
08/23/2014 11:59:38 AM MDT

A worker walks through the Kittredge complex on the University of Colorado campus during a construction and renovation project there in July. CU officials are proposing renaming Kittredge Central as Houusoo Hall and Kittredge West as Nowoo3 Hall, honoring two well-known Arapaho chiefs.
(ANTHONY SANDRIN)

Next spring, two dorms in the University of Colorado's Kittredge Complex could be renamed Nowoo3 Hall and Houusoo Hall, after the native Arapaho spellings for Chief Niwot and Chief Little Raven.

Campus officials announced a proposal earlier this year to rename Kittredge Central and Kittredge West after the two chiefs, but after some discussion with CU faculty members and the chiefs' descendants, Housing and Dining Services officials are moving forward with a plan to rename the buildings in the Hinono'ei, or Arapaho, language.

"Using the Arapaho language really stressed the fact that the Arapaho were a different people that had their own language, and it reinforces the sense of their independence and the uniqueness of their presence in Colorado," said Andrew Cowell, chair of CU's linguistics department.

Nowoo3, which is Chief Niwot or Left Hand in Arapaho, is pronounced "Nah-wath," according to Cowell. Kittredge West, soon to be Nowoo3 Hall, was built in 1982 and recently renovated.

Houusoo, or Chief Little Raven, is pronounced "Hoe-soo," Cowell said. Kittredge Central, which may soon become Houusoo Hall, was constructed after crews demolished Kittredge Commons to make room for the new dorm.

Though these names might trip up a few parents or prospective students on campus tours, the university plans to create plaques explaining the pronunciation and significance of the names for the buildings. Officials will also create educational programming around the names to explain their importance and pronunciation for those living in the residence halls.

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However confusing the pronunciation might be, Cowell said it made sense to rename the buildings in the Arapaho language as a way to honor the two chiefs and their cultures.

"There are tons of examples where you have names in Spanish or French where it could be mispronounced, but if we're going to name a building for someone French, we wouldn't respell it in English," Cowell said. "We would look really stupid and ignorant to do that. Why would we do that with Arapaho?"

In a letter to the Board of Regents from members of the CU Native Studies department, the faculty members explained that using Niwot instead of Nowoo3 would be the equivalent of spelling Charles de Gaulle's name phonetically as Sharl duh Gahl, "which is culturally chauvinist and clearly primitivizing in a Native American context."

The proposal was approved at the November meeting of the Boulder Campus Planning Commission and must next be approved by the Chancellor's Cabinet. Debbie Cook, Housing and Dining services deputy director, said after that, her office hopes to bring the proposal before the Board of Regents for approval next February.

Cook said her office is planning a renaming ceremony for April 2014.

Kittredge Central, which houses the global engineering residential academic program and the leadership residential academic program, opened in August 2013. Kittredge West is home to the health professions residential academic program.

Cook said the new names match more closely those of other residence halls such as Buckingham Hall or Andrews Hall. The current names are mostly functional and describe the two dorms' geographic locations in relation to the rest of the Kittredge Complex.

"We just decided when we built Kittredge Central that it would be nice to name them something other than a functional name because all the other buildings have names," Cook said.

Nowoo3 was a prominent Arapaho leader during the mid-1800s who helped prevent retaliatory violence when the U.S. broke treaties with native nations, CU officials said. He's best known for the alleged Niwot curse, which warns of the beauty of Boulder Valley.

Houusoo was a similarly important Arapaho chief during the same period who helped reconcile several native nations.

Several other higher education institutions have buildings with Native American names, including the University of British Columbia Xwi7xwa Library, Stanford's Muwekma-Tah-Ruk Native American Theme House and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Kanonhsesne Residential Program.

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